An outdoor curling bonspiel will be held in Calgary for the first time in 100 years to award the Calgary Brewery Trophy.
The trophy was last handed out in 1966 for an indoor game, but has sat collecting dust since then, mostly because outdoor games are hard to plan for with our chinook-prone weather.
“Because there are a lot of great indoor curling clubs in Calgary, for one, but it just hasn’t happened outside, our weather is crazy, it was warm last weekend but this weekend it’s perfect, the ice is hard and frozen and we are going to have a great day on Saturday,” said Matt Masters, Lougheed House.
This year is Lougheed House’s 125th birthday, and it’s celebrating with a skating rink that was built back in September. The rink is smaller than most curling rinks, but organizers say that’s a good thing.
“The thing about this ice is that it’s about one third the length of a regulation curling rink, so this is not a full-sized Olympic curling rink because that’s really big and we are mostly amateurs here,” said Masters.
The bonspiel goes this Saturday at Lougheed House starting at 10:00 a.m. There are several teams signed up to compete for the cup, but individuals can also show up and play, and there is no cost for the event.
The weather is expected to be mild with temperatures hovering just under the freezing mark and a mix of sun and cloud… perfect for outdoor curling.
